There seems to be so much to worry about in the world today. Trump, global warming - and in the UK, our own homegrown disaster: Brexit.
But I’m not here to get into the politics of thing. I’m here to ask you to turn away from all that and get back in touch with your body.
As this is my first blogpost, I think it makes sense to introduce myself. I’m Sidd Bhat, a former investment banker, now turned wellness entrepreneur.
I had an incredibly good run of things in my 20s. Working hard, I reached the top of my game at a major investment bank. I always focused on big socially minded infrastructure projects - raising financing, for example, for the UK’s largest offshore wind farm.
However, just when things were getting really good, I decided to step away. My colleagues thought I was mad. But I knew I had reached the limits of my growth.
And that’s what the next two years came about for me: growth. I realised it is essential to us all - to our health and to our happiness. And while I’d spent my lifetime pursuing it at the best universities and blue chip employers, I realised - thanks to my travels and the experiences I had - that growth can be found in the everyday.
Which had me thinking. How do I communicate that core truth to those around me? After returning to the UK from time spent all over he world, from partying in Bangkok to meditating at an ashram in India, I knew I couldn’t go back to the daily grind.
Instead, I set to work on my post-career career! It was actually the experience of turning completely plant-based in order to cleanse my body which most affected me.
I kept the diet up and realised I felt so much better from it. More rooted in my body - calmer, more comfortable and confident in my everyday chores, while my productivity levels went through the roof! No longer was I beholden to the ghastly afternoon slump at my office desk after a particularly heavy lunch.
I quickly came to realise that a plant-based diet was about so much more than what I was putting in my body. It was a hot-wired path to a deeper connection with myself and my own spiritually. I had to share the secret with as many people as possible!
So it is that I’m embarking on the next stage of my personal journey of growth. In November 2019, I launched bema eats - a revolutionary new way of delivering high-protein, plant-based food on the go to Londoners. I know it’s not going to be an easy journey. These things are hard and there will be ups and downs along the way. Keeping a blog is as much a way for me to process those bumps as it is to communicate my experience with you. And who knows, maybe some other young budding entrepreneur will find some inspiration in here. I can only hope.
Hopefully my posts though will be quite light on business and heavier on some of the deeper truths I’ve discovered along the way in life so far. I’m in no doubt I’ve had an incredibly privileged experience in life and I want to share some of that with you too. And while I’m big on spirituality, I also know I’m still learning - and as much as I want to write about my own experiences, I also want to hear what works for you.
So my first big takeaway? As that old famous saying goes, ‘tune in, drop out... and listen to your body!’ I changed that one slightly there but it gets to the heart of what I want to say in this blog post. There’s so much noise out there. So much fear, anxiety and - quite frankly - hate in the world today. Often, despite what the media might want you to think, the root of those feelings is to be found not outside of us but on the inside. Which brings me on to one of my favourite subjects: the link between nutrition and mental health.
More and more studies are showing this link to be crucial. The charity, mental health foundation, put out a policy briefing in March 2017 which is a must read. I could bore you further with the numbers but for now what’s easiest to say is take care of your gut and the head will follow.
So next time you start to worry about politics, maybe instead think about what you’re putting in your body.
